E = ERNEST HEMINGWAY, Author, A-Z Blog Challenge 2016

A writer who refined the sentence and the word to its essence.  His name was Ernest Hemingway.

Ernest Hemingway working on For Whom the Bell Tolls

E = Ernest Hemingway, Author, Journalist
Theme - Authors AtoZ

Ernest Miller Hemingway, born July 21, 1899, and died July 2, 1961, was an American writer of novels and short stories, supplementing that with journalistic articles. Most of his work was written between the mid 1920s and the mid 1950s. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. His published work included seven novels, six short story collections and two nonfiction works. Additional work was published posthumously including one of my favourites, A Moveable Feast.

In the early 1920s, Hemingway married the first of four wives, Hadley Richardson. They moved to Paris, where he became a member of the expatriate community and the 'Lost Generation'. He met Gertrude Stein, James Joyce and Ezra Pound, three whom he would befriend. 

Women were drawn to the author, and it seemed there was always someone waiting in the wings . . .when each marriage fell apart. Stein also introduced Hemingway to the artists and writers in the Montparnasse Quarter. There he met Picasso, another of Stein's favourites, and other influential artists. 

Ernest Hemingway, passport photo 1923 - PD

In 1939, Hemingway sank into depression  as his literary friends began to die: that year William Butler Yeats and Ford Madox Ford; in 1940 F. Scott Fitzgerald; in 1941 Sherwood Anderson and James Joyce; in 1946 Gertrude Stein; and the following year in 1947, Max Perkins, Hemingway's long-time Scribner's editor and friend.

In the 1950s, Hemingway suffered from the two plane crash/explosion accidents he had sustained in Africa, and became bedridden for a time. He was suffering from high blood pressure, liver disease, and arteriosclerosis by 1956. In November 1956, while in Paris, he recovered trunks he had stored in the Ritz Hotel in 1928 and never retrieved. The trunks were filled with notebooks and writing from his Paris years. Excited about the discovery, he returned to Cuba in 1957, and began to shape the drafts he had found into his memoir, A Moveable Feast. Hemingway had recurring bouts of illness and may have been suffering from a family condition which had affected other members of his birth family.

Fast forward to 1961. On July 2, 1961, Hemingway's sad death made all the news networks, and left a gap in the writing world. As he had predicted at his father's death by suicide, he did choose the same way to exit this world. At the time however, the press was told it was an accidental death, but later, his wife Mary revealed the truth. 

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Are you a fan of Hemingway? Which novel do you like best? If you are not a fan - why not? 

Please leave a comment to let me know you were here and I'll respond. Thanks for dropping by!

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A to Z Challenge

It's April again and time for the 2016 Blogging from A to Z challenge  This is my 4th year participating in the challenge! (Previous A to Z  posts at the top of my blog page tabs are: Art A-Z, French Faves, Paris, Etc. 

Thanks to originator Lee (Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out), and the co-hosts and co-host teams who make the challenge run smoothly. See the list of participants, and other important information at the A to Z Blog site.  The basic idea is to blog every day in April except Sundays (26 days). On April 1st, you begin with the letter A, April 2 is the letter B, and so on. Posts can be random or use a theme.

Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2016 - Badge

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References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway Wiki on Ernest Hemingway


Image: Hemingway's 1923 passport photo

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code. See Copyright.

 List of his books I have read: For Whom the Bells Toll, To Have and to Have Not, The Sun Also Rises, A Moveable Feast, A Farewell to Arms. I've reviewed several of these under the book review tabs at the top of my blog page.

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Ernest Hemingway - For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Review

Don't ask For Whom the Bell Tolls - you might not like the answer.

Waiting is the hardest part of any venture, especially during war time, and this story shows the mental stress and psychological strain that results. For Whom the Bell Tolls starts out slow and builds towards the bridge and its demolition, which is the goal of the main character.  He's a hired explosive expert working in a country that isn't his own. Attached to the bridge project in various ways are the people who live and fight in the mountains, the enigmatic girl saved from the train, the foreign sentries guarding the bridge, and the enemy troops coming closer every day.

The characters: Roberto (Robert Jordan), explosions expert; Maria, the female interest; Anselmo, the old guide; Pilar, the matriarch who controls much of the actions of the local group; and Pablo, the tired old leader who stirs the trouble pot to see what Roberto will do. Each has his own doubts, his wants, his fears and his past. Into this maelstrom of testosterone comes a love story, a relationship which might not have happened in any other time. Two people who have no personal connections to hold onto are thrown together in wartime, when no one knows what the future will bring. Roberto's cold heart and Maria's painful past find solace in the other's company. 

Hemingway's male perspective on the intimacy between Roberto and Maria is somewhat subtle considering today's standards, but anything more would intrude. Duty, honour, and dedication to one's cause is the thread that runs through the story. The setting is the Spanish Civil War, the story is about trying to protect one's home from outside forces and the resulting cost in human terms. One particular scene details how Pablo deals with the Fascists and anyone he deems to be sympathizers. 

This is also a story about how war affects those who must fight and those who must watch. It's a clear look at the good (comradeship, duty, honorable acts), the bad (excessive killing and torture) and the ugly (destruction of bridges, homes, etc) aspects of any war. I like Hemingway's style of writing and although it's not my favourite Hemingway novel, it is an important one, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. I recommend this book if you want to understand more about the Spanish Civil War and the painting that Picasso painted in 1937, Guernica, after the bombing of the town of the same name. 

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E. Hemingway, by Lloyd Arnold cover photo, late 1939 *PD

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Are you a Hemingway fan? Have you read this novel? In general, do you read to learn more about a certain point in history, or do you prefer only to be entertained?

Please leave a comment to let me know you were here and I'll respond.  Thanks for stopping by! More reviews are on the horizon. . .

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Public Domain Image of Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway posing for a dust jacket photo by Lloyd Arnold for the first edition of "For Whom the Bell Tolls", at the Sun Valley Lodge, Idaho, late 1939.

This image was only used on the 1940 edition. It was common (and allowed by the copyright office) to change things such as the preface, foreword, and dust jacket when renewing a book. If the old book cover was not renewed along with the book, it fell into the public domain. This work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1963 and although there may or may not have been a copyright notice, the copyright was not renewed. This also applies to Canada.
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